Ascendancy

New Beginnings

Adler has been partnered with Giskard, one of the experimental dual-souled warforged, and tasked to investigate the ruins of an old creation forge near Tanar. Just outside the creation forge, the pair come across signs of conflict, and raise their guard accordingly.

They discover that the forge’s wards have been recently tampered with, but Giskard’s clockwork bombs allow them to gain entry. Inside, they discover an inactive warforged lying in one of the forges. An improvised set of jumper cables shocks the being back to life, but to their surprise, he immediately starts ranting about demons and charges at the pair.

After a brief struggle, they manage to subdue the awakened warforged, one Sir Jarlamain Coster. Giskard manages to convince him that they are not demons, while Adler tempts Sir Coster with the promise of further demons in the complex to fight.

The trio move on to one of the neighbouring rooms, where they see a vat of elemental fire, at the bottom of which lies a strange homunculus. After applying some flame retardant to his body, courtesy of Giskard, Sir Coster leaps into the vat and retrieves the homunculus. As he climbs out of the vat and places the homunculus on the floor, it releases a huge wave of force that throws the party back. When their optics clear, they see another warforged standing where the homunculus had been, his arms aglow with fire and ice. Giskard recognises that he is one of the earliest models of warforged, used centuries ago as gladiators for entertainment. He introduces himself as Fides.

Adler and Giskard decide to bring the two new warforged along with them to investigate the rest of the complex. Returning to the creation forge’s main hall, they find that the alarm system has been suddenly activated and they are beset by the automated defense systems. Luckily, Sir Coster and Fides are proficient combatants and the party scrap the defenses without much fuss.

They head upstairs to see what else awaits them in the creation forge..

Having come to the ruins of old Altus in search of more God-artifacts, the party have just defeated a group of mages who had been trying to summon a dragon. Looting the room, Ahava spots a magical card sitting in the maw of the dragon statue. Grabbing it, he barely has time to see that it reads “The Fates” before swirling magical energies coalesce around the exits, trapping the party.

To their consternation, a phantasmal dragon starts pulling itself out of the statue. Roaring at the party, “You fools! Do you even know what you’ve taken? I’ll have to call a council to deal with this!” It scribes a quick series of runes in the air, which Ahava recognises as a spell for communication and summoning. Turning to the party, the dragon then starts ranting about unknown power, and mages and something called the Waiting Dead. Recognising the term, Darhe’el blurts out, “Aren’t the Waiting Dead the spirits of Haaza’s followers? What does that have to do with a dragon?” At this, the dragon flies into a rage and starts flailing at the party.

They dash about in a mad effort to avoid injury whilst trying to calm the dragon down. Luckily for them, it is only a few minutes before a shimmering portal opens up in the air and a strange gnomish looking female appears. “Haaza! Stop playing with the mortals! The council you summoned will be assembled shortly.” The dragon, whom the party now realises is Haaza himself, abruptly curls up into an ashamed ball, “Sorry Tierza.”

More portals pop into being, from which step a host of amazing humanoids. Ahava realises that these are the Gods of Altus, and the party falls into awed silence. Except TC, who goes up to Sune demanding to know about a persona in his head. Ignoring them, the gods start an animated discussion amongst themselves.

Most of what is said goes over the Clowns’ heads, but they gather that the Fates card is part of “The Deck of Many Things”. It was released into the mortal world by Navis and Novis as an amusement, but its power could now pose a threat to the gods and something they called “The Ascension”. They also note that Ehrim is missing from the council, and wonder what could have happened to keep him away.

Eventually, Vindir throws up her hands in exasperation, “Look, we all know that we each have our own agendas and agents in place. Enough with the politics and pretenses. I’m done here!” She turns to her companion and they both disappear through a portal. Soon, only Tierza, Haaza and Sune remain. Peering at Ahava and the card he holds, Tierza says to Sune, “Well, looks like you’ve had first dibs on the Deck, but I’ve had my eyes on this group too.” She leaves through a portal too, while Haaza disappears into his statue and Sune vanishes with a puff of smoke and a cheeky wave.

The party are still standing in shocked disbelief, when a man forms out of a pool of shadow on the ground. “Phew! Thought they’d never leave!” They recognise him as Vindir’s companion. Turning to Darhe’el he says, “Dar! Don’t you recognise your old friend Marcus?” Realisation dawns, then an uncharacteristically violent Darhe’el lunges and grabs Marcus by the throat, “You betrayed us!”

“No no! You’ve got it wrong, I was attacked by the shard hunters too! I only survived by making a bargain with Vindir to become her champion and servant.”

Darhe’el takes a minute to process this, then lets Marcus go. Brushing himself off, Marcus says, “Look, I just wanted to let you know that everything wasn’t your fault, and that those hunters are after -” He is cut off as Craig slams into him with his weapons drawn. The Clowns are taken aback by the unprovoked assault, but they soon feel a familiar presence around them. “The shard hunter!”

Facing overwhelming odds, the shard hunter is quickly beaten to within an inch of its life, but with a last burst of effort, it grabs Marcus’ obsidian and teleports away. “No! That was Vindir’s Unseen Blade, we have to get it back!” Marcus tells the Clowns that he will seek Vindir’s assistance while they pursue the shard hunter. Quickly agreeing, the party race out into the ruins of Old Altus, tracking the magical trail of the hunter. Darhe’el pauses to make a quick call to Asimir, who then magically appears at their side. With his help, they track the shard hunter to a nearby Consortium outpost, where they see the shard hunter hand the Unseen Blade to a weird frost tiefling.

The party draw their weapons and charge at the tiefling, while Darhe’el manages to convince the Consortium lackeys lounging about the outpost to lend their assistance. The lackeys ferry healing potions to the party and feed Darhe’el some mana oil, causing his power to reach ludicrous levels. The tiefling is a powerful frost magic user, but falls quickly to the combined assault of Craig and TC, who picks up the Unseen Blade. Meanwhile Ahava and Darhe’el keep the shard hunter and its shard executioner companions busy. Just as they are about to finish off the last of the shardminds, Asimir casts a powerful spell over the Clowns, rendering them unconscious. He then picks up the Unseen Blade and chuckles over the helpless adventurers.

With the power of the mana oil still surging through him, Darhe’el bursts up from his magical stupor and lunges at Asimir. His pulsing psionic energies are so ridiculously ludicrous that his charge rips a hole in the space-time continuum, sending him and Asimir hurtling through the Domains. Asimir is momentarily amazed at Darhe’el’s power, but quickly casts a spell to teleport himself to safety, leaving Darhe’el alone and suffocating in the void between planes. Just as everything is about to fade, a portal opens and a strange gnomish looking female appears, “Come Darhe’el, I have great plans for you.”

Back in the physical realm, the Clowns have recovered and learnt of Darhe’el’s heroic sacrifice from the Consortium lackeys. They resolve to hunt down Asimir and avenge their fallen friend.

Season finale

With Whisper masquerading as a cabal leader, the party sends up a signal flare to the Garuda. Shortly, an envoy appears from the Raven tribe with instructions from Iru; the Clowns are to bring the cabal leader to the home nest for an audience. Deciding that it is unlikely to be a trap, the party sets off to the Raven tribe village, with Whisper, Fara, Seras and Alina the interpreting security officer in tow.

The Garuda village is made up almost entirely of dwellings high up in the trees, with no access for landwalkers. The party find themselves subject to many wary stares as they are led to a pavilion set up specifically for dealing with land walkers. Iru and his council of Garuda elders are waiting inside.

Greetings are exchanged and Whisper is brought forward to be addressed by Iru, who intones gravely, “We are grown weary of your constant intrusions in our lands, and demand that you cease all such activity.” Before Whisper can interject, he continues, “We are aware of your bases on the islands, and have thus far made no moves against you. We give you one chance to remove yourselves peacefully, or we shall be forced to raise our hand.” Whisper sputters indignantly, “What! You Garuda steal our holy relic, and now you have the gall to issue us an ultimatum like that?” At this, the entire council rears back, puffing up their feathers, and the guards make ready their weapons.

“whoa! Let’s all just calm down!” Darhe’el steps in, realising that Whisper doesn’t have any tact at all. “No one here is being accused of anything. Just, you know, their holy relic was stolen just over a month ago, right before, you know, a stranger came to your tribe, you know, Asimir, yes that guy. And, like, you know, we would just like to ask him a few questions, so if you could let us do that we won’t have to kill anymore of your guards notthatwe havedonethat atallnopewehaven’t. oops.” Iru is skeptical, but decides that the Clowns have been fair with their dealings in the past and so starts a quick casting to contact Asimir. Embarrassed, he finds himself unable to connect, and instead conjures a scrying circle from the stones in the pavilion.

Everyone there is amazed to see scenes of Garuda fighting with otherworldy beasts, with two great rifts rending the landscape asunder. The council immediately break out in alarmed chatter, and Iru tells the party to leave, saying they would resume negotiations once the situation was dealt with. Knowing that Asimir is likely to be at the rifts, Darhe’el instead offers the aid of the Clowns. With a dismissive wave, Iru tells him to do whatever he wants, just stay out of their way.

Back on the Cloudchaser, Captain Evar sets sail for the rifts on the other side of the island. A pack of flying beetles and jellyfish lies straight between them and their destination, and the fearless Captain decides that the fastest route is straight through. Tc mans the harpoon gun while the rest of the party prepares for combat. The flying beetles latch on to the ship and start gnawing through the cables connecting the air balloon to the hull. One of the jellyfish goes for the Captain, while another wraps its stinging appendages around the harpoon gun to disable it. A flaming skull materialises and starts flinging out bolts of shadow, obscuring TC’s optics and pinning him to the ground. Fortunately, the creatures seem to be preoccupied with eating the ship instead of the Clowns. Once the skull is extinguished, they clean up the monsters with little danger to themselves, though one of the cables has nearly been chewed all the way through.

Captain Evar orders makeshift repairs and presses on towards the rift. As they draw close, the party see a deva standing in the middle of an arcane circle, surrounded by Garuda. They hear a magically amplified voice, which they can understand(magically) even though it seems to be addressing the Garuda. “Look. I know I lied to you and pretended to be one of your people blablabla, but it was for your own good and anyway we have a really big problem to deal with right now so let’s just talk about it later alright?” The deva turns to look at the crew of the Cloudchaser, which has drawn level with him, “Ho adventurers! You look like a sturdy crew (and I’m assuming you’re here to help). I’m going to force the rift energies to take on a physical form, which you can poke at. This will allow you to help close the rift without requiring any magical knowledge on your part. Couldn’t be simpler!”
As Asimir starts his spell, the Mask of Deceit floats up and suspends itself in front of the rift. It rapidly enlarges, then splits into three faces. Tendrils of energy spin themselves out of the rift and attach to the faces, twining into physical bodies, a stone giant, a water titan, and a twisting nether hulk. The stone giant steps forth first, flinging chunks of earth at Asimir, disrupting his concentration. The Clowns rush forward to surround the massive creatures, covered by supporting fire from Kaira and Seras. Asimir stumbles back, and the disruption in the ritual causes the three forms to merge into one colossal being, which stomps the ground, unleashing a terrifying burst of energy. The Clowns are gravely injured by the blast, but inspiring warcries from TC and Darhe’el keep everyone on their feet. Fara’s constructs also dart back and forth amongst the melee, dispensing their restorative infusions.

The rift gargantuan splits back into three, and the water titan spits gouts of liquid, pushing everything backwards. Darhe’el unleashes rapid attacks with his psionically charged greatspear, weakening the titan’s defenses and creating openings for the rest of the party to pile on. TC and Whisper work together to flank and cause massive damage. The nether hulk sends its draining energies out, sapping the adventurers’ will. Temporarily empowered with flight by Iru’s shamanistic magics, Ahava charges repeatedly at the head of the giant, teleporting back to safety after each strike with his divine blade. Craig makes clever use of Fara’s explosive constructs to cause maximum amounts of injury along with his own twin swords.

The fight rages on as the party struggle to bring down the three rift titans. Another stray attack hits Asimir and causes him to falter. With a triumphant roar, the titans merge again and release a flurry of magical energies. The Clowns have used up almost all their jokes. Darhe’el and TC are pushed to the very edge of the cliff by the blasts. Just as the titan is gathering its energies to sweep them off, Ahava teleports behind it and deals the final blow, causing it to dissipate in a flash of energy. The rifts implode, sucking all the remaining otherworldy denizens away as they do.

As the dust settles, Iru hops over to Asimir and caws angrily. Appearing from the rubble, Alina translates for the Clowns’ benefit, “You! The elders banned you from our tribe. How dare you show your face here again?”. Asimir replies, and it seems his translation spell is still in effect, “It was nice to see you all again too. Anyway, you’d never have been able to close these rifts without me, so I’m just gonna go now and let’s leave it at that alright?” Turning to Whisper, he says, “Thank you for the use of your relic. You can have it back now.” Whisper is too flabbergasted at Asimir’s audacity to reply, and simply snatches the Mask of Deceit up, reverently tucking it away into his pouch. Finally, to the Clowns, “Well, you lot arrived just in time to give me a ride off these islands. Let’s go then!” Darhe’el pipes up, “You know, we’ve been tasked by the Arcanum to enlist your help in closing the rifts that have been appearing around Alter. It seems you’ve the same goals as well, so why don’t we, you know, work together for now.”

“The Arcanum finally got off their asses eh,” Asimir says amusedly, “let’s talk more on the ship; I think Iru’s just about had it with me.” The Clowns pack up and return to the Cloudchaser, setting sail for Tanar.

Illusions and Masks

The party set up some traps for the eventual return of other members of the White Mask Cabal. Ahava and the remaining cabal member are tied together to maintain the charade that Ahava is part of the cabal. The party hear footsteps and voices nearing, and someone exclaims at the ineptitude of new recruits leaving the trapdoor unlocked. A figure in a white mask and dark clothes enters the room and triggers the trap, knocking him to the ground. Unfortunately he manages to shout out a warning to his companions. Two other figures with white masks enter before dark smoke fills the whole room, obscuring everyone’s vision.

When the smoke finally clears, the party are surprised to see doubles of themselves in the room with them. Ahava senses does not sense an illusion but manages to sense the presence of magic cloaking someone else in the room with them. Craig and Darhe’el quickly decide to take down their respective doubles, while TC is bogged down with confusion as his analytical engine struggles to come to terms with the situation. Ahava hears a voice questioning him about his identity, and deduces that the person in the room with them is the high-ranking mage Kaira previously mentioned by the white mask cabalist. Darhe’el manages to discern the rough location of the cloaked figure, and Ahava drops his pretense to charge the mage. However, the mage takes the opportunity to add more confusion to the mix by taking Ahava’s form. In the end the party are still sticking to their strategy of focusing on their doubles. Realising that the party are experienced adventurers, Kaira orders his subordinates to drop their disguises and just kill them all. The features of the faux party members shift and are revealed to be changeling agents.

The mage conjures an illusory horde of soldiers to harass the party as the changelings dart in and out to deal devastating strikes. After a fierce fight, the party manage to defeat the changelings and subdue the mage. They revive the unconscious TC and bring Kaira back to the ship to hand him over to the garuda.

Back at the Cloudchaser, the party frisk Kaira and discover identity papers linking Kaira to the Merchant House of Fremen but notice that they are high quality forgeries. When questioned, Kaira maintains his claim to be a member of House Fremen which cause the party to be suspicious of him. However, Kaira expresses his admiration for the party’s skills and suggests that they aid him and the cabal in recovering an important artifact from the garuda. He offers the party reward and the opportunity to get into good graces with the merchant houses of Tanar, many of whom are members of the White Mask Cabal. He claims that the cabal undertakes less savoury tasks for the merchant houses to maintain their economic and political superiority, and expresses his interest in enlisting the services of the party for the cabal’s cause. Knowing his duplicitous nature, the party still decide to go along with Kaira’s plan and hope to discover more about the White Mask Cabal.

Before going, Fara activates a connection between TC and a spy drone that they sent to the garuda’s home island. They notice that there is a rift in the air near one of the settlements where elementals are pouring out and the garuda are striving to fend them off. They also utilise Kaira’s scrying crystal to spy on the main settlement and see the garuda shaman Iru possibly sending off various other garuda shaman to aid the other garuda at the rift. They also notice a garuda with Iru who looks quite different than the other garuda, and suspect this may be the garuda Asimir.

Kaira is freed, and they return to the abandoned mage tower to meet with his other changeling contacts. Kaira plans to use a changeling to take his place with the garuda and maintain his distance. He also indicates that having a changeling tag along would be crucial as they can sense the artifcat that they are seeking. Kaira sets of a flare, and several figures eventually approach their position. A lean changeling in dark leather armour addresses Kaira. He introduces himself as Whisper, and appears to be a sort of leader among the other changelings. Kaira explains that they had an altercation with the party and that his changeling retinue were indisposed. Whisper seems irritated at this. From their conversation, it appears to the party that the changelings appear to be a sort of mercenary band who are allied with the White Mask Cabal for some strange reason. It also seems that the artifact being sought by the Cabal was originally in the possession of the changelings who had some sort of deal with the Cabal regarding it. Upon hearing Kaira’s plan, Whisper volunteers himself for the mission and begins to make preparations. The party question them about the artifact and how they are to find and retrieve it. Whisper reluctantly tells them that what they seek is a magical item called the Mask of Deceit. The changelings are a sect who worship Ehrim, and believe that the mask was created by Ehrim himself and bestowed to the first changeling. It is rumored that anyone who wears the mask can take on any form, and no method of divination can tell the difference without the wearer’s consent, save Ehrim and his favoured children, the changelings. The changelings can sense the rough position of the artifact which becomes clearer the closer they are to it. After Whisper is ready, they head back to the Cloudchaser and prepare to contact the garuda.

Into the wild blue yonder

Finally finishing the preparations for their Altus expedition, the Clowns headed to the airport to meet up with Fara, Seras and Galros. There they were introduced to Captain Ivar of the Cloudchaser, an experienced and skillful dwarf, who told them the journey to Altus would take about two full days travel. He also warned them about the Garuda, a race of territorial avian people that had settled in Altus. After a quick tour of the ship, the moorings were cut loose and the expedition officially set sail.

The journey was mostly uneventful, punctuated by Darhe’el’s constant bouts of airsickness. Craig spent the time holed up in his quarters, while TC barely left his position at the bow, where he kept a constant watch for their destination. Ahava spent hours working with Seras to figure out how he could bring passengers along with his teleportation.

Near dusk on the second day, TC finally spotted the outlying islands of Altus floating in the distance. Captain Ivar pointed out one of the islands, which he knew to be the main Garuda settlement, and announced that the ship would be heading there first to announce their presence to the Garuda, thereby pre-empting any misunderstandings. As they drew closer to the island, a massive unkindness of ravens burst forth, heading straight for the ship. Peering intently at the birds, the Clowns noticed that they seemed strangely synchronised with each other; a sweeping mental probe by Darhe’el identified only three sentienrs amongst the entire flock. They tried their hardest to communicate the peaceful intent of their mission, and eventually some of the ravens split apart from the rest and coalesced on the deck, shifting into a Garuda.

The Cloudchaser’s Garuda interpreters immediately rushed forward to address the representative, who introduced himself as Iru. Donning one of his angel costumes (don’t ask), Ahava tried to pass himself off as a cousin of the Garuda race, but was merely met with contemptuous disdain. Through the interpreters, Darhe’el learnt that someone calling himself Asimir had recently integrated himself into Iru’s tribe, and had been helping to close the planar rifts popping up around the land. It was very likely that this was the same Asimir that the Clowns were searching for. However, Iru bluntly refused to let them dock and contact Asimir, who he had taken on as a student.

After much persuasion, Iru gestured at Ahava and revealed that large numbers of white-masked landwalkers had been sighted on the neighbouring islands and were causing trouble for the Garuda. He agreed to consider letting the Clowns contact Asimir if they brought him the leader of these white-masked people. Seeing no other alternative, the party agreed to accept this quest. In a burst of wings, Iru dissolved back into ravens and departed.

That night, the Avenging Clowns held council, eventually deciding to send one of Fara’s constructs to the Garuda home nest, in an attempt to secretly locate Asimir. Meanwhile, the party would head to the other islands and investigate the white-masked people.

Piloting a skiff to the islands, the party saw ruins dotting the landscape, but could detect no overt signs of habitation. Once they’d made landfall, Craig quickly discovered fresh tracks which led to a ruined tower. TC cleared away some of the rubble from the tower, revealing a trapdoor. Attempts to pick the lock failed, and Craig was unable to force it open. Ahava then realised it was a basic arcane ward around the trapdoor, and spoke the magic words “Open Says Me.”, causing it to swing upwards and open.

Cautiously heading down the stairs beneath, the party found a partially collapsed chamber filled with magic lightglobes and workrooms. Creeping forward, Craig overheard a pair of people in one of the workrooms, talking about expecting an inspection from one of their superiors soon. A mage named Kaira was apparently in charge of the magical device they were using and the arcane ward, along with someone named Jakic. Learning this, Ahava sauntered forward and banged on the door of the workroom, “You idiots, this place is full of security flaws! I can’t believe I managed to get in without either of you knowing.” He flung the door open to find two white-masked men staring dumbly back at him, “Well don’t just stand there! I’m here to carry out the inspection. One of you come out here and help me unload my belongings.” Utterly taken in by his deception, one of the men obediently followed Ahava back out into the chamber. Unfortunately for him, Darhe’el and TC were lying in wait and unleashed a flurry of surprise attacks as he rounded the corner.

Maintaining the charade, Ahava cried out in alarm and ran back into the work room, shoving the other masked man out to face Darhe’el and TC. It was two against two now, but Ahava wasn’t done with his performance. He staggered forward, clutching his sides and collapsed in front of the two masked men. Darhe’el mentally rolled his eyes at the ridiculousness of the situation as Craig came vaulting over Ahava’s prone body, licking his blades, “Your boss was no match for me, and you’re next!” Shocked and awed, the masked men didn’t put up much of a fight. The Clowns decided to leave one alive for interrogation.

The prisoner woke up to find Darhe’el and TC staring down at him as well as the sounds of Craig’s maniacal laughter and Ahava’s entirely believable screams of pain echoing from a neighbouring workroom. Darhe’el hissed menacingly at him, “Your boss is being a little sstubborn, but you look like you’re more clever than that..” He quickly capitulated and told Darhe’el that they had been scrying on the Garuda home nest in an attempt to find a precious artifact for their cabal.

Expanded Log

Darhe’el and Ahava awaken from their slumber feeling unnaturally weak and tired. They are both surprised to see that the wounds they sustained in their dream are also physically present albeit to a lesser extent. They also each notice red dust on their clothes. Perplexed and worried about the state of Craig as he was unconscious the last they saw him in the dream, Ahava and Darhe’el rush to the offices of the Avenging Clowns to check on their comrade. They find him still unconscious in his chair and are unable to wake him, no matter how hard they try. They are even more worried to find that TC is nowhere to be seen. They hope that TC has just gone to get help. As they attempt to administer first aid, they discover red dust on his clothes as well as a greenish glowing crystal shard in his cloak. Darhe’el tries to awaken him using his psychic powers but is disturbed when he can’t seem to feel Craig’s mental presence. They are so intent on Craig that they almost do not notice the bluish glow that fills the room as teleportation runes appear on the floor. There glow intensifies and forms an outline of a warforged and finally TC appears from the teleportation circle. He appears somewhat disoriented as the glow around him fades, but soon rushes to his friends’ aid.

Ahava and Darhe’el are surprised by TC’s sudden appearance but are grateful for his help as he shoulders Craig and they head to look for the cleric, Marek. They locate Marek performing her morning rituals and enlist her aid in treating Craig. She notes that his body is physically sound, except for some bruises, and that he does not appear to be suffering from any natural poisons. However, Marek also fails to awaken Craig, but discerns that his malady may be of a magical or psionic nature. They immediately send a message to Seras explaining the situation and requesting the attention of a suitable member of the Arcanum. In the meantime, they bring Craig to an unused room and also get some help from other guild members, but to no avail.

As the group wait, they question TC on his mysterious disappearance and reappearance, as well as the changes to his body that they now notice after the immediacy of Craig’s situation has worn off. TC explains that last night, he and Craig returned to the company office to retire and found the message from Chip, Ka’da and Jacob. There was also an item for him from the Iron Council in the form of a small cube. The cube reacted with TC, causing some of his coverplates and tribal markings to shift around. He now sports a sigil in the shape of a half-cog, which is the symbol of the Iron Council. When he touched the symbol, he was transported to a strange place. TC recalled that he first found himself in a large hall that contained various forges, tools and workbenches. As he was about to leave the hall, he heard footsteps outside the door. A figure entered the workshop and called out to TC to join him outdoors. TC recognised the figure as being the Primus of the Iron Council, and followed him out.

Outside, TC saw a strange grey sky and many buildings and workshops surrounding him. The yard and streets around him seemed strangely bare and unadorned. Everything had a very utilitarian look, plain but somehow beautiful in their simplicity. TC joined the Primus on a nearby stone bench and started questioning him about where they were and why he was transported here. Primus explained that he had sent the cube to TC as he wanted to speak in person. He had heard from Arda that TC had been experiencing strange dreams, and wanted to investigate the matter personally. Primus explained that warforged did not dream naturally, and what TC had seen must be some sort of vision or sending. Primus then placed his palms on TC’s head, and suddenly TC found himself seeing his vision again. Oddly enough, he could see the Primus beside him and it seemed as if they were watching the scene from a different perspective. Primus observed a humanoid form seemingly encased in a giant crystalline shard. The figure appeared to be writhing and screaming in agony as though the crystal was not there.

As the viewing ended, TC asked Primus if he knew why he was seeing visions of a trapped human and if it meant anything. “The person you see in the crystal is no human. He is what you would call a deva. And yet, not. He feels somehow…incomplete. This is troubling indeed. I must consult with my master”, Primus explained. TC asked who Primus referred to as master, to which he only smiled and said “I do not believe it is time for you to meet him, nor is it even time for you to fathom who he is and why I call him master. Although… you may glimpse part of him now.” As Primus completed his sentence, he turned to look out the gate of the compound. As TC followed his gaze, he noticed someone walking up the road toward them. He had the strangest sensation, as it appeared that the figure was walking closer toward them and also staying stationary far away. The figure’s features also seemed to be blurry, and TC could not even what race he was. As the figure walked, objects appeared to construct themselves out of thin air around him. Lampposts, ornate railings, benches and statues appeared to grow or build themselves around him. He also appeared to be whistling and swinging a blacksmith’s hammer around his right hand. As the figure drew closer, Primus turned to TC and said “I have now seen what you have seen, and heard what you have said. I do not yet comprehend its meaning or significance, but we shall speak of this again soon enough. Now go; it is not yet time for you to meet him.” And with that, TC found a teleportation circle forming around him and soon found himself back at the guild.

As the group pondered the ramifications of TC’s tale, Seras arrived at the guild with an elderly githzerai in tow. The githzerai appeared to be bossing him around and complaining that he was being taken away from some very important research. Seras introduced the group to his companion: the esteemed psion Sercu, senior professor of psionics at the Arcanum of Tanar. Seras suspected from Darhe’el’s description of last night’s events that a psionic attack was responsible for Craig’s state and had requested the help of an experienced psion, although it appeared as if he was beginning to regret his choice of Sercu.

The group lead Seras and Sercu to the room where Craig is in. Sercu examines Craig intently while they explain the details of the events to him. He grunts in seeming annoyance and asks to see the crystal shard they obtained from Craig’s cloak. “Aah such amateurs. Even you, ardent. In fact, especially you, since the others are as ignorant of the psionic arts as you are of dental hygiene and could be excused”, mutters Sercu. Seras glances at Darhe’el with a weary expression and rolls his eyes. Sercu explains that they had been attacked by a mindshard dominator and that he had somehow pulled psionic projections of themselves through their dreams in the mind domain. “Tsk. Nasty stuff, mindshards. Which god did you offend to attract the attention of one? Any god with eyes and a fashion sense, perhaps.” tutted Sercu. He goes on to explain that Craig’s psychic projection is trapped in the mind domain in a dormant state as he fell unconscious there, and that it is possible to recover his psyche if they enter the domain once again. However, since Craig is not in his physical form they will need to send psionic projections to lead him back to his body.

Sercu is now legitimately interested as he claims that not many psions have experience working with a warforged mind. He continues to boss Seras around, demanding ritual candles and ki focuses to aid in his ritual. Once the preparations are complete, Sercu sends each party member into a deep sleep while he draws out and guides their psionic projections using Craig’s crystal as a focus. Each party member has some difficulty focusing their minds on the task at hand which causes some delays getting them to their destination. And a pony.

The group finally reach the place that Darhe’el, Ahava and Craig encountered the mindshard and notice Craig’s body, or his psionic projection in the shape of his body, slouched on the ground. As the party draws nearer to grab Craig, the crystals scattered around his body start to levitate, spin and coalesce into the shape of a mindshard. They hear Sercu’s alarmed voice in their heads telling them to flee as they cannot risk further harm to Craig or themselves. Sercu states that he will hold off the mindshard’s psionic attacks and try to prevent it from following them. Sercu tells Seras to lead the party out as he has studied the domain of paths. Seras is slightly puzzled at Sercu’s instruction but manages to guide the party to away from the mind domain. However, it appears he is not accustomed to traversing the domains as a psionic projection and they end up scattered in the earth domain.

The party find themselves on different rocky outcrops surrounded by a sea of sand and mud. In the distance they spy rugged mesas, plateaus and looming mountains. Fortunately, they have all arrived within visual range of each other. The party can see Craig’s still unconscious form on a central hill. However, before the anyone can make their way to Craig, a mud elemental erupts from the ground. More mud and silt elementals emerge from the sand and they all appear to be agitated. As the group try to move toward the central outcrop, the elementals attack them. Seras is concerned that the elementals seem to be able to hurt their psionic projections and are intent on harm. A large form suddenly erupts near Craig and grabs him before slamming him into the rock. The rock gives way like water before the hideous monster and Craig is entombed in the rock.

Seras identifies the large monster as a Terraguhl, and urges the party to recover Craig’s “body” and leave the domain. The party are able to dispatch the other elementals but Ahava also ends up entombed in the rock by the Terraguhl. However Ahava successfully managed to dig himself out of the ground and reach Craig. The party hear Seras seemingly holding a telepathic conversation with Sercu, and they appear to be arguing. Seras seems to be confused by Sercu’s instructions and claims that Sercu’s explanation of psionic travel through the domains are outrageous. Finally the Terraguhl and the other elementals are subdued but the party start hearing loud footsteps drawing closer and see stone behemoths striding closer to their location. Seras finally scrambles up the rock outcrop, teleports Craig’s body out of the rock, and calls for the party to hold onto him as he prepares to lead them home.

As the party hold onto Seras’ shoulders, they see glimpses of the domains flashing before their eyes. They see lush jungles, strange skies, a cabin on a lone isle, workshops, deserts and alien landscapes before they finally find themselves in a blurry representation of the room they were in. They can see their own bodies lying on cots . They move Craig’s psionic projection to where his physical body is as Sercu completes his ritual to return them and they feel themselves pulled back into their physical bodies and they finally awaken.

Craig's Listless

Earlier, when Craig and TC returned to the Clowns’ office to retire for the night, there were two packages waiting for them. One was a message from Chip updating the team on the effort to locate Darrak. Ka’da, Chip and Jacob had decided to split up and follow different leads in search of their missing friend. They had also sent messaging devices back to the office, so that they could be contacted if their skills were required back in Tanar.

The other package was for TC, and contained a mysterious well-engineered cube. Being the curious individual that he was, TC inserted the cube into a (cough) socket in his body . A strange transformation happened and the symbol of the Iron Council appeared among his other tattoos. And as if by magic, TC suddenly felt a strange sensation and was teleported from the Adventurers’ Guild.

TC regained his senses to find himself in what appeared to be a blacksmith’s paradise. Many forges and workbenches lined an impressive hallway. Hearing footsteps, he quickly tried to hide under a table. He was discovered though, by none other than Primus, leader of the Iron Council. They spent some time talking about the warforgeds’ origins as well as some strange visions that TC was having. After the encounter, Primus teleported TC back to the adventurers’ Guild.

TC reappeared in the Clowns’ office just as Darhe’el and Ahava came rushing from their homes to check on Craig. During their psionic encounter with the mindshard the night before, Darhe’el had mortally wounded Craig while under the mindshard’s control. It appeared that the battle had some physical effect on Craig, as he could not be woken up. When shaken, a crystal from the dream world rolled out of his hand.

Worried, the companions tried dragging Craig to the Guild’s chapel to see if Marek could help resuscitate him. She couldn’t, but was able to identify that the attack was psionic in nature. The companions contemplated dragging Craig down to the basement for safekeeping, or dragging him to the Arcanum so that the wizards there could take a look at him. In the end, they decided to contact Seras and request help from one of the Arcanum’s psions.

Seras soon arrived with a Professor skilled in the psionic arts. He told the companions that the only way to revive Craig was to re-enter the psionic dimension and retrieve his body there. Using the crystal shard as a focus, the companions and Seras (eventually) focused their thoughts and were transported back to the same desolate landscape they were trapped in the night before. They soon found Craig’s body, but just as they were about to reach him, monsters started to appear out of hiding to ambush them. Seras contacted the Professor to beam them out.

Something went wrong though, and the team reappeared in what looked like the Domain of Earth. Seras was familiar with this realm due to his studies, and was excited that the psionic and elemental domains were somehow connected. His eagerness soon disappeared when the team was attacked by rock, silt and sand elementals. One of the elementals was able to use its elemental abilities to bury Craig deep in the ground. The team managed to defeat the elementals and reach Craig just as a great many more elementals appeared. Forming a (sorta) human chain, the team was transported out of the domain.

As the companions traveled back to the physical realm, they witnessed numerous domains flashing before their eyes. They saw the realm of the mindshard, a forest domain, an island domain and even the warforged workshop that TC visited. They arrived back at the Adventurers’ Guild without incident though, and Craig appeared to be alive and well, but sound asleep. Seras returned to the Arcanum with the Professor, and the team was left wondering about the great disturbance in the force. They didn’t have long to get their thoughts together though, for they would soon embark on a journey to the floating city of Altus!

Stop hitting yourselves

Darhe’el, Ahava, Craig and TC return from their excursion to the forest with an adult phase spider an anchorstone in tow. Seras leads them to deposit the items in the designated laboratory and receives a message that they are to meet with another mage in his workshop. Seras guides the party to a small workspace where a bored looking human mage is idly tinkering with some alchemical equipment. He introduces himself as Clem, and explains that the Rift Committee has asked him to provide the party with some enchanted items to aid in their work. He provides the party with a magical couter and magical gloves, and tweaks the enchantments to fit the items to the Darhe’el and TC.

While chit-chatting with Clem, the party notice that he seems dissatisfied and frustrated with what he perceives as menial work, and the Arcanum’s lack of interest in his research. There are numerous vials of mana oil in his laboratory but upon questioning, he reveals to Darhe’el that they are all ordinary and do not possess the unusual qualities of the mana oil from Lake Yelta. Seras explains that Clem is doing research into the applications of mana oil in enchanting magical items, but has not made much progress. He was previously working on using mana oil as a conduit to facilitate destination focussing in magical teleportation devices, but due to the recent events has been forced to halt his research. He complains that the Arcanum now mainly requests him to test previously enchanted magic items to ensure they still work properly, which is a tedious process.

As Clem finishes his adjustments to the items, they hear a knock on the door and see Gelros poke his head in. Gelros greets the party brightly and asks if they are leaving to the Adventurer’s Guild. He has been looking for them, as he is planning to head to the Guild to have dinner with his old friend Rodin and would appreciate the company on his walk there. The party agree to accompany Gelros, and take their leave of Seras and Clem. As they walk to the Guildhall, Gelros bores the party with his tales of past expeditions and bits of Altusian history. When they reach the Guild mess hall, they find Rodin at his usual spot at the bar with scrolls surrounding him. Gelros and Rodin greet each other cheerfully and start a boisterous conversation. The party are invited to join them for dinner and drinks, as Rodin is also curious how the meeting with the committee went.

At dinner, the party give Rodin a summary of the meeting, which seems to meet his expectations. The party also question him and Gelros about the floating islands of Altus. They proceed to explain that the islands have been abandoned after the last great war as they are now unstable. The outlying islands are prone to crashing to the ground, and even the stable islands have been inhabited by vicious monsters and spirits. Drakes and rocs have established nests in the ruins, and magical aberrations are rumoured to still wander underneath the surface of the islands.

Gelros and Rodin reminisce about how they managed to clear out most of one of the main islands many years ago. They had managed to secure an area that used to be the noble district of the main city, which is now used as a staging point for Arcanum expeditions and historical tours. However, they speculate that the rifts are probably occurring on the islands as well and the safety of the islands may not be as before. Rodin also updates the party on some of the goings on in the guild in recent times. It appears that the guild has been kept quite busy, as the rifts make the surrounding areas less safe. The party are relieved to learn that the annoying Kors and his company will be away at Daru for a while on an engagement. Rodin also lets Darhe’el know that Cale would like to have a chat.

A few more mugs later, the two dwarves start singing about Bosmerta the Bearded Beauty, who could fell an army with a flick of her facial hair. Our adventurers decide it best to beat a hasty retreat.

Darhe’el decides to check in on Cale before he leaves, and finds him having a quiet drink and smoke out in the courtyard. Cale informs Darhe’el about the Slyblades Mayana and Kashik’s previous ties to the Thieves’ Guild of Th’Mall. He also brings news that since Darhe’el left Th’Mall, the guild has been in turmoil as more and more members went missing and were presumed killed. Some members, like Darhe’el, fled to Tanar but have also recently been disappearing. Darhe’el leaves Cale with even more questions on his mind.

Craig heads for his makeshift sleeping arrangements in the Clowns’ office, while Darhe’el and Ahava leave for their own rooms in Lowtown. On his way out of the Guild, Ahava is interrupted by Marek, the Guild’s resident cleric. She can sense his recent encounter with a divinity, and invites him to share his experience. Ahava decides to reveal to her all the details about the realm of darkness and the deva who empowered his sword. After performing a divination ritual on the sword, Marek tells Ahava that the deva in his vision was a manifestation of the goddess Sune herself. She goes on to say that clerics of all faiths have been having close encounters of the divine kind recently, leading many to suspect that major events are unfolding in the realm of the gods. She also makes him promise not to let the Arcanum know this fact, as she feels that magic users are misusing the energies of the land. He promises, then takes his leave.

That night, the party find themselves haunted by strange dreams. Ahava recalls the morning he discovered the unlimited supply of masks on his face and Craig dreams of being pursued by aberrant, unnatural horrors. Darhe’el relives the night his team was killed by the mysterious psionic presence, a nightmare he has had many times before. But this time, he can feel that presence again, as if it were somehow close by, beckoning him to follow…

Gasping in fear, Darhe’el jerks himself awake. To his surprise, he is not in his rooms, but in the middle of a weirdly shifting landscape filled with glowing green crystals and rocks. A short distance from him is a whirling mass of crystal shards, which suddenly projects loudly into his mind, “A/ahh, YO\U’re the o|NE TH]at go+T Aw-a!y. Th||is ti/me I AM goi\ng to ha]VE y\ou|r -fr|IE\nds FI^N[ish the j|ob.” Looking around, Darhe’el is taken aback to see Craig and Ahava standing behind the shardmind, but he breathes a sigh of relief when they charge straight for the crystalline being. Hefting his greatspear, he too joins in the assault.

The party quickly become frustrated as their blades are unable to find purchase in the rapidly moving swarm of shards. The shardmind takes this opportunity to launch its counterattack, flinging out crystal spikes that become embedded in the adventurers’ bodies. Ignoring the pain, the party continues to slash away, unaware of the true nature of the shardmind’s techniques.

Ahava is the first to fall prey to the mental domination of the shardmind; he turns to strike at Darhe’el. Craig succumbs shortly after and starts to pursue Darhe’el as well. With the shardmind’s laughter booming in his head, Darhe’el does his best to fend off his teammates’ blows. Fortunately, it seems some small part of them is resisting the domination, holding themselves back from unleashing their full strength on Darhe’el. Finally they manage to fight off the corrupting influence and regain control of their actions. Drawing on Sune’s blessing, Ahava’s sword begins to emit a radiant light, destabilising the shardmind and forcing it to coalesce into a solid form. Now that they can get good hits in, the party quickly dispose of the creature before it can take over their minds again. As the shardmind dissipates, their vision fades out and they wake up in their beds. Was it all just a dream? Funnily, Craig finds some of the green crystals in his pocket when he awakes..

Here and there and everywhere

Almost a month has passed since the strange rift occurred at the Arcanum. Since then, other rifts have started appearing randomly throughout Tanar. Reports from other cities and towns indicate that the rifts are also occurring elsewhere. Furthermore, the strange earthquakes are still happening and magical energies also seem to be fluctuating wildly. Teleportation and transportation magic has become very erratic, transformation and communication magic is nearly impossible while elemental and summoning magic seems to have been greatly boosted. The Arcanum has started intensive research into the arcane fluctuations but so far have failed to uncover the underlying cause or solution. They only suspect that the rifts and the earthquakes are connected to the magical turmoil.

After sealing the rift at the Voyager Sanctum, the Arcanum has been tasked with aiding the local city guard in sealing any rifts that occur within the city. The adventuring guild has been very busy as many adventuring companies have also been engaged to aid in the effort in Tanar and elsewhere, including the party’s company (The True Beliebers Fan Club). Ahava has been requested to drop by the Arcanum regularly so they can study the seal that was made on him that allows him to teleport safely. The enchanters at the Arcanum have also provided Ahava with enchanted Boots of Freedom and Craig with Iron Armbands of Power. Strangely enough, none of the arcanists who were there at the time can remember who the mage who made the last seal was. The only recollection the party has of the last mage was that he was an eladrin mage in blue and green robes.

The company have learnt that Darrak, who used the Consortium teleporter with Chip, has not made contact with any of their group or with the guild. As such, the company have been working with Selon, Soira and the Consortium to see if they can locate and retrieve Darrak. Selon recently suggested that they seek the Arcanum’s help as they are trying to stabilise teleportation. Not long after that, the adventuring company is summoned to the Arcanum to discuss the rifts. Ahava, Darhe’el, TC and Craig make their way to the Arcanum, while Ka’da, Chip and Jacob continue to pursue clues to Darrak’s whereabouts.

On the way to the Arcanum, several small rifts suddenly appear along the street the party is on. The other pedestrians recognise the rifts and scatter, while someone goes off to alert the guards. A peculiar creature with bright yellow eyes, long pointy ears, bluish skin and abnormally large clawed hands pokes its head out of one rift. It opens a dimensional window in the air through which it pokes its arm, which then reappears behind the party to steal a healing potion from Craig’s pouch. The party identify the strange creature as a boggle, an inquisitive and mischievous fey creature. Fortunately, it is not particularly dangerous but it can be a nuisance and may turn violent if it is provoked. More boggles appear from the rifts and start causing mischief with the abandoned stalls and wares. One boggle even manages to obtain Darhe’el’s greatspear and another manages to steal Craig’s swords. The party attempt to recover their belongings and are mostly successful, but the boggles become agitated and start attacking them. The party manages to subdue the boggles and even have the idea to capture one to bring to the Arcanum. As they are trying to figure out how to transport the boggle without it teleporting to escape, they spy a mage and a guard arriving on the scene. The mage is amused to see the captive boggle and conjures magical shackles to restrain it. The mage then accompanies the party to the Arcanum with the boggle towed behind her, leaving the city guard to sort out the mess on the street.

Finally reaching the Arcanum, the party are greeted by Seras, the Translocation Student who was with them during the rift incident at the Voyager Sanctum. The other mage chats amiably with Seras, as he calls for some other student to help her bring the captured boggle to the Magical Creatures Department. Seras explains that most of the students are being mobilised to help with the rift incidents and to aid the senior mages in investigating the magical fluctuations. Taking their leave from the mage and the stupefied boggle, Seras leads the party to the Arcanum library where they enter a room dominated by a large mahogany table. Seated around the table appear to be a few senior mages, nobles, guardsmen and some familiar faces. Selon, Gelros, Dorin, Arda, and Fara are in attendance and rise to greet the party. Selon explains that the group is a committee assembled to investigate the rifts and arcane fluctuations and deal with them. Selon is representing the Arcanum as well as the Adventurer’s Guild. Arda, Fara and Dorin represent the Iron Council and Consortium, who have agreed to lend their aid. Gelros is serving as an adviser to the Arcanum and the noble houses.

Chip had related the snippets he heard from Burn at his cabin on the peculiar island to Dorin and the Arcanum, who together with Arda and Gelros have managed to piece together a theory on the strange goings on. Arda goes on to explain to everyone that the magical phenomena are all related to an event known as The Gathering. Gelros had encountered scattered mentions of it from arcane texts written around the period of the Great Mage War with Raza. Abnormal fluctuations and strange occurrences had happened during that time, but was assumed to have been the effects of the magical war. Now, the Arcanum theorised that it was actually The Gathering that had caused those fluctuations and is now happening again. It is also suspected to be related to the high concentration of magical energies and other oddities in Coren.

The committee would like further investigation into the Gathering and proposed to engage the aid of the reclusive scholar Asimir, who was branded a heretic long ago and now roams the continent of Alter conducting his studies. Asimir has great knowledge of the arcane arts and had studied the domains of magic all his long life. He believed the domains to be the foundation of all power in the world and that they ebb and flow in time. Most recently, some adventurers had reported spotting someone fitting his description in the sky ruins of Altus. The party are thus requested to work for the committee and undertake a trip to Altus to contact Asimir. Seras, Gelros and Fara are also tapped to go on this expedition. The party agree to aid the committee, in return for substantial reward.

Although a goal is set, planning the trip to the sky islands of Altus will still take some time, especially with the difficulties faced by magical transportation. The party are thus asked to help out with another task while Fara and Gelros make preparations for the trip. A phase spider has been spotted in a forest not far from Tanar. This is unusual, as phase spiders have never been spotted outside of Coren and the domains. The Arcanum suspects there is another rift in the forest and request the party to seal it as well as capture the phase spider for study. Phase spiders are one of the few creatures which can teleport intrinsically, and the Arcanum is hopeful that the study of the boggles and phase spiders will help them perform reliable teleportation again.

Seras travels along with the party to the forest to aid in restraining the phase spider. When they reach the forest, the find a clearing that looks completely incongruous with the rest of the forest. Bluish sand appears to cover the ground, and blue-gray rocks tower around the edge of the clearing. There are also 6 small rifts around the clearing, and three strange tall, dark, tapered stones streaked with silvery blue veins in the centre. The party spy the phase spider tending to a few eggs near its web. Seras suggests also trying to obtain the eggs. Craig notices a strange shimmer at a corner of the clearing. A dimensional marauder suddenly phases into view and tries to make off with a spider egg. The phase spider taps the egg and an immature phase spider hatchling emerges. As the phase spiders and dimensional marauders square off, the party attempt to capitalise on the situation to capture the beasts. The party scramble around to keep up with the teleporting spiders and marauders, and end up in the rifts which transport them around the clearing randomly. They also notice that the three stones seem to prevent or disrupt teleportation somehow. Finally, they manage to defeat the beasts and capture the adult phase spider. They also pry out one of the stones, which Seras has dubbed an “anchorstone”, to return to the Arcanum. As soon as they remove the stone, the landscape changes back to a normal forest clearing again. Wondering at the strangeness of the clearing, Seras leads the party back to Tanar where they are then informed to prepare for an airship trip to Altus.

The Ruins Outside Lasette

The party managed to escape the stampeding killik and collapsing tunnels on the outskirts of Lasette. In the race out of the tunnels, they successfully recovered the seal of House Kajida from the Gray Cartel and emerged out of the tunnels into the partially caved in basement of a ruined building. There were various other low ruins and what appears to have been the base of a tower.

They made their way back to the town where Grimas and his friends have informed the constabulary that Gray Cartel members were murdered in cold blood. The constables warned the party that they would not be welcome in town for fear of reprisal from the Gray Cartel. Fortunately, Gelros had almost completed his preparations and the whole group made their way to the same ruins which contained the tunnel exit.

Gelros conducted his investigation of the ruins safely while the rest of the party fended off any wandering beasts or killik from the tunnel mouth. The Gray Cartel seemed to have fled the area and left the group in peace. Gelros successfully recovered several scrolls and document cases in a buried library which he explained would be of interest to House Kajida as they contained records of the inhabitants of the estate, including their lineages. Gelros was quite excited to discover that a couple of mages had once lived there and they were affiliated with the military research division of the old Altus empire. He speculated that they may have chosen to operate in Lasette due to the easy availability of raw materials from the mines, and may possibly have even overseen magical transportation of the products.

While they were camping out at the ruins, Gelros would give long lectures about the history of Altus. He speculated that the mages were in residence at Lasette during the great War of Mages, when Altus waged war against the mage state of Raza. Eventually, the sorcerers of Raza eradicated most of the mages of Altus and either destroyed or stole a large amount of magical knowledge. Gelros was hopeful that he would discover some hidden store of arcane lore of the time. After almost 2 weeks at the ruins, Gelros was ecstatic to stumble upon a previously hidden secret cache in the ruined tower which contained several magical recording tablets. Excited with his discovery he contacted House Kajida and later informed the party that they would be departing back to Tanar shortly. There were no further incidents of note, and they all made their way safely back to Tanar.

Back in Tanar, Gelros met with representatives of House Kajida and the Arcanum. They agreed to plan a joint expedition to fully explore the ruins in more detail and possibly discover more about the mages who once lived there. In the meantime, the magical tablets would be loaned to the Arcanum for study. Gelros was very enthusiastic and was also very thankful for the party’s aid during the pilot expedition. Gelros warned that future expeditions may become more dangerous if the Gray Cartel took an interest, and also the killik agitated by the earthquakes. He recommended that the party be engaged to aid in future expeditions, which was nominally agreed by the Arcanum and House Kajida. The party were paid 800 gold for their work, and bade farewell to Gelros as he stayed in the Arcanum to aid the study of the tablets and plan the next expedition.

Sealing the Rift

Arcanum Side Trek
At some unknown point in time Ahava, Ka’da and Craig are hanging out in the offices of their adventuring company on the 3rd floor of the guildhouse when they hear a knock on the door.

A half dwarf/mul named Ban-Thul greets Ahava at the door and requests that they help him take in his friend Jacob, a githzerai monk. It appears that Jacob is a relative of a friend of his who has recently come to Tanar to seek his fortune. Ban-Thul is a sort of agent who organizes prospective members and also jobs for adventuring companies. However, Ban-Thul is currently preoccupied with an important matter out of the city and will not be able to help his friend. He has heard from Rakhan that this group of adventurers is very capable and will be able to take in Jacob. He offers information that a commotion is happening at the Arcanum in exchange for their help in taking in Jacob.

After a round of introductions, the group head down to the mess hall with Jacob in tow where they proceed to get pleasantly drunk at lunchtime. Before that, Jacob is shown around the guildhouse and is curious about the upper floors which are closed off due to containing magical rooms and items. Jacob is a skilled monk who has left the Silent Order due to his talkativeness, and proceeds to delight everyone with his acrobatic skill and ability to leap long distances from a standing position.

Finally, the group decide to leave the guildhouse in search of some adventure. Ka’da decides to stop by a seedy watering hole called the Rat’s Tail while the other three head over to University Row and the Arcanum. At the Arcanum, the group is barred from entering by a pair of dwarf doormen, which is unusual and there does seem to be a commotion somewhere on the grounds. Craig circles the tall walls and determines that the source of the commotion is somewhere on the eastern grounds of the Arcanum. Ka’da on the other hand manages to trade a single gold piece for a mysterious bottle from the half-orc barman at the Rat’s Tail but fails to obtain any other news. He makes his way to join the others at the Arcanum and manages to convince the dwarves that they were sent by the Adventurer’s Guild to deal with whatever was happening at the request of an Arcanum professor.

The doorman enters to confirm the story, but can not. However, an Arcanum member is on his way and wants to meet the group so they enter. Inside, they meet Seras, an eladrin arcanist who appears injured and has scorch marks on his clothes. He seems relieved that the party are offering to help and sends a dragonfly messenger to the Adventurer’s Guild to request further assistance if possible. He leads the group to the eastern lawns where an attempt to conduct stable teleportation has gone awry. The recent magical fluctuations had caused teleportation in particular to be problematic. They arrive at the courtyard of the Voyager Sanctum to find a strange rift floating in the air. Creatures are pouring out of the rent in the air, and other arcanists are trying to hold them off and clear a way to the rift so some of the senior arcanists can attempt to close it. The smoldering carcass of a vicious looking wurm lies in front of the rift were a large number of juvenile killik are feasting on it.

At Seras’ request, the party aids the mages by dispatching the killik while they try to get in position and start a ritual that could seal the rift. Their efforts go extremely well at first, with Jacob’s lightning quick punches and kicks and Ahava’s spinning blade downing several killik at one go. Ka’da and Craig opt to dispatch the killik from afar. However, soon even more killik pour through the rift along with larger adult sized killik. Ka’da succumbs to wounds from claw slashes and poison from the adult killik’s fangs and falls unconscious. As the arcanists start their ritual to seal the rift, it shifts and a pulsing red light starts emanating from it. Two flame hounds and a large magmaspike elemental burst forth from the rift and start attacking the mages trying to seal it. At this point, Jacob is also seriously injured and falls unconscious. Ahava manages to administer aid to Jacob to heal him and later also feeds Ka’da a healing potion to revive him. As the magmaspike elemental moves closer to him, Craig pushes a statue onto it which manages to damage and slow it down.

Ahava once again attempts to teleport during the battle and finds himself in a field of burning ground and flame trees populated with all manner of fire elementals. Luckily, he can see a strange rift in the air through which the familiar sight of the Arcanum courtyard can be seen. He rushes through the rift and reappears in the courtyard, but not before suffering burns to his feet and legs. He urges the mages to complete the sealing of the rift as even more elementals have been attracted to it and may emerge from it soon. Two of the mages simultaneously inscribe hasty seals on Ahava, and when Ahava teleports again he manages to do so without incident. This seems to surprise the mages and they redouble their efforts to seal the rift.

The party continue to attack the elementals and push more heavy statues onto the magmaspike elemental which slows and dazes it. Finally, the magma elemental is buried under rubble from the statues and as the party destroys its core it roars loudly before disintegrating into a pile of ash. Also, as Ka’da and Craig face the two flame hounds, they each manage to slice clean through the flame and destroy the hounds. The mages also manage to seal the rift once the threats from the elementals are dealt with, and thank the party for aiding them and preventing further incursions from the rift. It appears some other creatures have made their way to other parts of the Arcanum, but the other mages are able to deal with them accordingly. In the end, only one apprentice was killed and a handful of mages were seriously injured. The party are treated at the infirmary where they also manage to obtain some healing potions from the Arcanum’s stores. The arcanists at the Voyager Sanctum courtyard thank the party profusely and one of them, an enchanter, offers to enchant an item for each of them.

Strange Places

After climbing down the tunnel in pursuit of the dwarf, Baelard, the party discovers a tunnel at the bottom of the well leading out of the town
TC stays behind above the well to clean up their mess and keep watch. He also sets the prisoners free.
Going down the tunnel in the dark, the party comes to a fork in the tunnel
Trying to track down the dwarf, they try to find his tracks but there seems to be many tracks, indicating the tunnel is well used
The party decide to take the path that leads straight ahead
At the end of a fork in the tunnel is a dark pool
Ka’da chucks a stone at the pool, but the stone strangely floats momentarily before sinking into the pool

Meanwhile…
Chip and Darrak have just completed a job for the Consortium with Doric.
Chip saved Doric’s hide and in thanks, is gifted a Thunderblast Hammer
Returning to a Consortium safehouse, Doric offers to allow Chip and Darrak use of their teleportation device to return to Tanar or their friends.
Darrak and Chip decide to pop in on their friends and utilize the teleporter to meet them.
Inexplicably, Chip instead appears alone in a strange clearing in a forest. He walks through the forest and tries to find his way to civilization. However, he notices a strangeness in his surroundings as the trees and climate seem to change as he walks. The sounds of wildlife also seem to change along with the forest.
Finally, he encounters a large, tall humanoid dressed in skins and wielding a large hunting knife chasing after a wild boar. The stranger has a green glow around him and it also fills his eyes. Long antlers sprout out of his forehead and his hair is unkempt. The man tells Chip that he is far from home and should not be in this forest. He explains that he is participating in a Wild Hunt, but he offers to show Chip a way home. He pushes Chip along as they walk through the underbrush they suddenly emerge on top of a hill on an island.
The island appears pretty small and it seems there are no other landmasses in sight around it.
The green man leads Chip to a small cabin on the hill and calls out for something or someone named Burn.
An eladrin appears, and he also seems to exude a bluish aura and a blue glow in his eyes. This is presumably Burn. He invites them into his cabin, which Chip notices is larger on the inside that on the outside. It is filled with maps, atlases, globes, compasses, nautical paraphernalia, wheels and various other strange objects. Burn converses briefly with the green man, who then nods to Chip and leaves him in the care of Burn.
Burn speaks to Chip and offers to send him where he intended to go. Chip offers up a token related to Craig and requests to be sent to where his friend is. He clears up some space near his crowded desk and draws an arcane circle there. As Burn mutters while consulting some charts, Chip catches mentions of Domains, Paths and the Gathering. However, before he can question Burn, Burn completes the circle and sends Chip on his way with a friendly wave.
It appears Burn may have miscalculated, as Chip rematerializes 3 feet above Craig, and they both fall into a tangled heap.

Darrak’s whereabouts however, are still unknown…

Back in the tunnels…
A blue slime emerges from the pool and attacks the party
Chip and Craig deem that Ka’da, Ahava and Darhe’el have the situation in hand, and scamper off to find an exit.
The fight goes well at first, but the slime starts growing strange appendages which burst and splash acid. The fight drags on and Ahava is knocked unconscious when one of the strange appendages burst.
Chip and Craig go down the other fork and come to a dead end. There appears to be a trap door above the end of the tunnel. They hear some sounds that could indicate the presence of people above the trap door and try to break through it. As they break through the door, suddenly tremors are felt in the tunnels.
Darhe’el and Ka’da call out for assistance with dispatching the slime and resuscitating Ahava.
Craig and Chip momentarily abandon the trap door exit and rush to help their comrades.

After successfully liquidating the slime, and Chip and Craig stand guard while the others revive Ahava and take a short rest.
Increasingly stronger tremors are felt in the tunnels and the group decides it is a good time to get out of the tunnels.
However, as they head towards the trap door another strong tremor is felt and the tunnel starts collapsing around them. The party are unfortunate and sustain some damage as they get caught under some earth and rocks and have to dig themselves out.

Finally reaching the trap door, they find that it has fallen shut again. Chip and Craig push through the door and as they emerge, they are surprised and consumed by manticores.
Actually they are attacked by a group of drow and duergar. The party has emerged into a large space, which is filled with various boxes and shelves. Baelard is also seen cowering behind some chests.
A fight ensues as Baelard tells what appear to be other members of the Gray Cartel that this group had attacked them and are opposing the Cartel.
Ahava attempts to use a shadow step to teleport behind one of the duergar but is instead transported to a strange suffocating space filled with shadows.
Ahava attempts to call up some light, and a silvery glow suffuses him and his immediate surroundings. He also suddenly feels no need to breathe, and a female figure materialises in front of him.
The figure appears to be Alia, the object of his self imposed quest. She speaks to him and tells him this is not a place where he belongs. Ahava’s suspicions about her nature are confirmed as her form changes into that of a regal female deva, with a silvery glow in her eyes. She states that she still has plans for Ahava and places her hand on the blade of his sword. The sword starts to glow and a rune which denotes “Enemy” is now inscribed along its blade. “Your blade will guide you to where you are supposed to be” she says, and Ahava finds himself pulled out of the shadowy realm and back into the fray.
The fight continues until another tremor interrupts it and suddenly a horde of dog-sized creatures start swarming into the room from one of the other tunnels.
One of the duergar shouts out that the earthquakes must have disturbed a nest of killik in one of the tunnels. Larger sized killik also start to appear and charge into the room. The whole swarm of killik appear very agitated and start to attack everything around them in a frenzy.
The Gray Cartel members disengage from the fight and attempt to retreat through one of the other tunnels, and the party follow suit.

More troubles in Lasette

- Ahava, Darhe’el and Ka’da have subdued Grimas and his band of ruffians at their hideout.
- They glean some information from Grimas that the seal has been passed off to the Twins, two drow who are connected to the Gray Cartel.
- It seems the Gray Cartel appear to have requested Grimas, through the Twins, harass Gelros and prevent him from investigating the ruins of the Da’gareth Estate.
- As they continue to question Grimas about the whereabouts of the seal, Ahava hears the constabulary arriving and the group makes a quiet exit. Darhe’el “acquires” the tiefling’s Cloak of Lurking.
- The trio return to the Singing Canary Inn and meet up with Gelros who has contacted someone at House Khajida about reclaiming the seal and possibly getting a replacement so he can continue with his expedition
- Back in Tanar, Craig and TC have just returned from a small escort job and head to the Guild Hall to catch up with local news
- They find Rodin there with a promise of a quick job delivering a package to Lasette and aiding their friends there
- TC also proceeds to speak to Kors and his group, who antagonises him until he leaves
- Craig goes to speak with Soira to attempt to contact Darhe’el with the Contact Slate. However, Soira claims that the magical frequencies are slightly out of sync and probably needs to be retuned. TC stumbles in later and Soira gets him to test out an upgrade to his optics
- Returning to Rodin for further instruction, they see him arguing with Selon who states that accurate teleportation would be nearly impossible at this time due to some magical disturbances
- Rodin then tells the duo collect the package at the train station and take a train to Lasette
- The whole group meets up at the Boar’s Head Tavern, where they pass over the new seal and some books to Gelros
- Gelros recounts his research in the meantime, which told him that the Da’gareth family was a vassal family to the Khajida House and was involved in the Altus war.
- Ahava, Darhe’el and Ka’da also did some research around town but could not find the twins. They did hear rumours that the Gray Cartel ran some illegal mines surrounding Lasette
- After sharing all this information, Gelros heads off to organise supplies and plan their trip to the ruins. In the meantime, the five adventurers do some more investigation into the whereabouts of the twins and the stolen seal.
- The party talks to the goliath bouncers at the Boar’s Head, its tavernkeeper and some of the constables. In the course of their enquiries, they discover that Grimas and his group have escaped from the local jail and that the twins can usually be found near the abandoned stables on the eastern side of town.
- The party stakes out the stables and notice suspicious figures skulking around. Ahava recognises Grimas and his gang along with two drow figures entering the abandoned stables.
- The party then rushes the stable and confront Grimas and his rag tag band. The tiefling, Dajani, attempts to reclaim his cloak, which leads to a short scuffle with Darhe’el.
- Grimas, and his half-orc and dwarf friends attack the party to chase them off. The Twins are more inclined to retreat and attempt to pull their group out of the fray.
- However, the party manages to knock out the half-orc, Goron. Baelard the dwarf attempts to drag his friend to safety. One of the twins pulls off some planks covering an old well in the corner of the stables, which seems to be their escape route. The ruffians attempt to escape while the twins cover them, but the party manage to subdue all of them with the exception of the dwarf who scampers down the well.
- Having the twins and Grimas’ remaining group captured, the party try to extract more information out of them. The twins are reticent and claim the Gray Cartel will come to deal with the party. Grimas and his friends however are severely disheartened and promise not to interfere anymore. They still claim not to know what the Gray Cartel are up to.
- Frustrated, the party with the exception of TC decide to slit the throats of the twins in cold blood as Grimas’ group watch in horror, and chase the dwarf down the well. As TC leaves to follow the party down the well, he cuts the bonds of Grimas, Dajani and Goron and allows them to go free.
- Down the well, our heroes discover that there is a tunnel heading in a direction away from Lasette.

Tromping through the streets of Lasette

Adventure notes:
- Darhe’el, Ka’da and Ahava drinking at the mess hall at the guild
- Rodin announces he has a simple job up north
- A halfling rogue, Kors, makes his obnoxious appearance at the mess hall. Though highly skilled, he is loud, brash, arrogant and annoying. Darhe’el throws a drink at him but misses, causing him to surreptitously threaten Darhe’el. Seems Kors just completed a major job, and will be in town for a few days.
- Feeling put off by this annoying little prick, the party decides to take up Rodin’s offer and get out of town for a little while.
- Rodin explains that he has a friend, Gelros Erdav, who is an archaeologist that wants to do a little pilot survey of the ruins of an estate up north near the town of Lasette. Gelros is sponsored by House Khajida, who have connections to the ruined estate, and if the results of the survey are promising, he may mount a larger expedition to explore the ruins. Gelros has already left the day before to procure some lodgings and supplies at Lasette, and so Rodin will send him a note to meet the party at the Boar’s Head tavern.
- The party takes a train to Lasette and head to the tavern where they are supposed to meet Gelros. On the way they meet a street urchin, and a pair of strange goliath bouncers.
- The tavern keeper informs the group that Gelros has already left with another group. He was also quite unsubtle about his sponsorship by a noble house. After questioning the goliath bouncer, it seems he has been misled by a suspicious group of local ruffians led by a character named Grimmas.
- The party head to the market square to look for Gelros, and after questioning some of the traders there they head to a secluded alley on the west end of the market square.
- The party notice Grimmas and his gang threatening Gelros in the alley, and try to interrupt the proceedings. However, Grimmas and his group manage to obtain the House Khajida seal of commission from Gelros and make a run for it.
- The party gives chase through the streets of Lasette and cause a huge commotion, but unfortunately Grimmas’ gang’s better knowledge of the local streets allow them to evade capture.
- Disheartened, the party explains the situation to Gelros and decide to safely convey him to his lodgings and resume their search for the seal later. On the way, they are stopped by some local constables for questioning about the commotion earlier. After explaining the situation to them, the party manage to overhear the constables’ plan to check the old tannery for Grimmas and decide to pre-empt them.
- Arriving at the old tannery, the party encounter Grimmas’ gang and manage to subdue them. However, they have already passed off the seal to some other companions and the party are unable to recover it at this time.

Strange Rumblings

Strange rumblings have been felt in the surrounding regions. The area around Daru has historically been seismically stable, but a series of earthquakes have recently occured there. The latest incident happened close to the town of Taycha. Other earthquakes have happened around the northern tip of the continent, disturbing an ancient tower.

It has been weeks since the incident at Lake Yelta, and Q has agreed to sponsor the formation of a new Adventuring Company for the ragtag group of adventurers as reward for the (more-or-less) successful mission at Yelta. The weeks passed fairly uneventfully as the Company settled into their new home, performing odd jobs for the Guild and getting accustomed to working with each other.

During these weeks of mundane routine, the adventurers managed to establish valuable contacts and focus on the reasons that brought them to Tanar in the first place. Darhe’el is constantly mindful that the assassin from Th’mall may arrive in Tanar at any moment, though he takes comfort in the fact that a cross-continental trek may deter or at least slow the psionic hunter down.

Fearing that this confrontation of wills is inevitable, Darhe’el had been keeping an eye out for means to swing the odds in his favor. He had been intrigued when it was posited that the faulty golems were caused by unstable mana oil from Lake Yelta. He realized that it might be possible to manipulate the oil to boost his psionic abilities, and was only too happy to head there to investigate. With some of the mana oil obtained at Yelta in his possession, Darhe’el had consulted with Q to see if she could research the uses of the mana oil beyond controlling constructs. Her expertise did not cover applications in psionics, but she did agree to introduce Darhe’el to a member of the Arcanum to further his research in this unstable substance.

An intriguing incident that arose during the mission at Yelta was the appearance of the Slyblades. Things got complicated when the Wilden Mayana accused Darhe’el of deserting his old teammate to be murdered by the assassin. Since the only people who knew about that was his (presumably) dead teammate and the assassin, Darhe’el was stunned by the accusation, and his only response was a barely-articulate “What the hell?” He got another shock later when the Slyblade team leader Kashik appeared to recognize him as well.

In the weeks since the mission, Darhe’el has attempted to discover more about the Slyblades and their connection to his home city of Th’mall. However, his lack of contacts in Tanar has been a hindrance, and his investigations have been unproductive. Faced with another source of potential danger from his past, Darhe’el now has to decide whether to ask for Cale Dar-Tanar‘s help in discovering more about these mysterious Slyblades. Recruiting Cale into this task would mean having to reveal his personal history and motivations to Cale and the Guild, and Darhe’el feels that now might not be the right time to do so…

Ok we will be taking a break from DnD for about 2 weeks. After that we will begin our next adventure in the campaign. For that, everyone should go up to level 4, and should have some backstory up on here too. I’m considering splitting the party and have two DnD groups, possibly with someone else DMing. Please let me know if you are interested in something like this.

I will be sending messages to expand the backstory and ask what your characters are doing in the meantime. If you want to, you can update the adventure log if you want your side quests to be available to all. Also, huge thanks to Jin Wei and Steven for the entertaining updates to the adventure log.

EDIT:
Ok, I’ve sent everyone a little something. There are some possible hooks there for your character’s storyline going forward. Please don’t hesitate to discuss with me, so we can establish what happens in this 1 month period between sessions, when you miraculously go up to level 4.

Constructicons! Merge to form DEVASTATOR!

The surviving Slyblades (Fulgrim, Mayan and Siran) have been bound together and are being interrogated by the party. Ka’da and TC opt for the physical approach, but their weak attempts are laughed off by Fulgrim. Darhe’el tries to be more diplomatic about it, but Mayan spits at his feet, accusing him of betraying his comrades at Th’mall. Finally, Dorin decides to use his Consortium employee status to work out a deal with the Slyblades. In exchange for their freedom, the Slyblades will escort the party to the mana oil refinery and get them an audience with Boss Orim.

The party are just about to reach the refinery when they spot Siran, who had been scouting ahead, sprinting back to them. In a hiliariously high-pitched voice, he reports that Fara and Arda are in a tense standoff with Boss Orim and his right-hand man Kashik. Unable to control their thirst for revenge on Fara, Doric and Dorin rush off to join in the confrontation. Fulgrim orders Mayan to accompany them while the rest of the party sneaks around to assess the situation.

Arriving at the clearing, the party hears Arda pleading for both sides to remain calm. At this point, Doric and Dorin burst through the crowd and demand that Boss Orim allow them to deal with Fara. Frustrated, Fara yells, “To hell with you all! I’m not waiting around for your permission!” She pulls out a scroll and quickly scribes a few sigils, causing constructs to start pulling themselves out of the ground around the Consortium forces. Panicking, Darhe’el calls for Soira on his iStone. In his haste, he messes up and causes the iStone to emit a high-pitched wailing noise, and then the entire crowd hears Soira’s voice over the loudspeaker, “Hello? What’s going on?”.

Noticing the party now, Fara shouts out, “You lot again!? And you’re working for Soira! MGLARGH I hate her so much!”. The constructs burst into action, attacking the Consortium. Soira frantically asks Darhe’el to try and find a peaceful solution, as the Iron Council is not an evil organisation. Seeing that Arda is still shouting for everyone to calm down, the party decides that taking Fara out might defuse the situation.
Ahava charges in, his blade flashing, with TC close behind in an overclocked rage. They slam into Fara, leaving her open for Ka’da to execute a devasting backstab. Overwhelmed, Fara falls unconscious, but this doesn’t halt her constructs, which continue to press the Consortium troops.

The party rush to help, TC smashing constructs left and right, Ahava moving so fast he almost appears to be teleporting around the battlefield. Though his fear powers are useless against constructs, Darhe’el still holds his own with his mighty spear, while Ka’da and Darrak let loose with lightning blasts and divine bolts. Broken constructs litter the ground, and it seems like the battle is about to be won, when one of the constructs starts to summon the broken parts to itself. The party look on in morbid fascination as the constructs begins to assimilate the spare parts, forming a grotesque chimaera of scorpion stingers, crab claws, dragon fangs and more.
Focusing their attention on the new Chimaera engine, the party manage to dismember it in a matter of seconds. To their dismay, it simply starts drawing in more parts, reforming into an even bigger mass. To make things worse, it has gained the Gemini engine’s ability to clone itself. As if that wasn’t enough, Arda has started to emit a crazy lightshow from his body, floating into the air and intoning, “Primus comes.”

Marshalling their strength, the party methodically subdue the Chimaera constructs, and Darrak scatters their logic cubes as they are brought down to prevent them rebuilding. As the last one finally falls, a teleportation circle appears around Arda and out step a group of ancient warforged. Arda announces them as the Iron Council and their leader Primus. Kashik and Darhe’el sense that Primus is a powerful psionic, something unheard of amongst warforged. Awed, Kashik orders the Consortium troops to stand down. Approaching, Primus apologises for Fara’s actions and begins to lay out the Iron Council’s intents. He states that research into the anomalous mana oil at the refinery is important for their goals, and posits that there might also be great profit involved for the Consortium. As the Primus and Kashik sit down to work on the details of an accord, the party packs up and heads back to Tanar, but not before saying farewell to their new comrades, Doric and Dorin, and the Slyblade mercenaries.

I cast Magic Missile at the darkness

Limping along on their damaged river skimmers, the party are halfway to Lake Yelta when they receive an urgent message from Soira, ’I’ve managed to track the arcane signals from the constructs you fought in Tanar. It should lead you to Fara and Dorin. They were seen in the village Selis, on the far side of Lake Yelta.’ Doric overhears their conversation and demands that the party go after his brother immediately, even though it means adding days to their journey. Realising that they would need his help if they were to successfully infiltrate the Consortium refinery, the party reluctantly acquiesce to his request. On the journey, Doric reveals that a bullywug named Orum Geko is in charge of the Consortium operations at Lake Yelta, and that he has hired a reknown and ruthless mercenary group called the Slyblades to deter interference. He also comments that the Slyblades have a psion with them who makes him uncomfortable and seems to cause increased bouts of forgetfulness if prolonged contact is maintained with him.

In Selis, the party asks the local dragonborn blacksmith if he has seen Fara and Dorin. The blacksmith directs the party to the lone tavern in Selis, where the party meet an elf named Ka’da who had been looking for employment with the Consortium. After some persuasion, he decides that the party is much more fun and tags along with them instead. They also learn from the tavernkeeper, an abnormally short old dwarf lady, that Fara maintains a residence on the outskirts of the village.

At Fara’s home and workshop, Darrak decides to act like everything is normal and goes up to knock on the door, but no one answers. Choosing a more blunt approach, Chip and C1 hurl themselves at the door and windows, only to be thrown back by an unknown force. Ka’da mutters amusedly to himself, “Amateurs..”, as he uncoils a grappling line and proceeds to clamber onto the roof, followed closely by Craig. Together they manage to pry away some roofing tiles, exposing a way in. Luckily for them, the forcefield seems to only extend to the windows and doors. Meanwhile, the other party members, with Doric’s help and knowledge, have managed to perform an arcane ritual that disables the forcefield around the entrances.

Regrouping in the living room, the party start to search the interior of the house. It isn’t long before they find Dorin tied up in the workshop/bedroom. “Brother!”, Doric rushes over to check that Dorin is alright. In his haste, he manages to trigger an alarm of sorts. Lights flash, whirring and clanking can be heard from outside. Rushing to the windows, the party is dismayed to discover a group of Fara’s constructs emerging from the bushes and converging on the house. They quickly get into a defensive position and wait for the constructs to enter.
All is quiet for a moment, then a canine construct bursts through the window, spraying glass everywhere. Unfazed, the party swarms the intruder, shattering it in a flurry of blows. But before they have time to catch their breath, the construct’s remains explode in a brilliant flash, flinging them back and riddling them with red-hot metal shards. It appears Fara has engineered a nasty surprise into this new batch of constructs.

More wolves bust down the door, mechanical teeth gnashing, while some scorpion constructs crawl in through the windows to surround the party. The fighting gets intense, as some of the members nearly succumb to the scorpion venom, and the suicide bomber tactics are frighteningly effective. When the last construct blows up, they finally breathe a sigh of relief. A grateful Dorin informs them that while being captive, he overheard Fara conspiring with a mysterious warforged called Arda. It appears they have plans to take secure a supply of the unique mana oil from Lake Yelta with the aid of an organization called the Iron Council. Fara, ever the reckless one, favors a direct approach to topple the Consortium leadership and wrest control of the refinery, stating that the Council would surely support them. Arda appears more cautious and requests Fara allow him to negotiate with the Consortium on behalf of the Iron Council. Not wanting to miss out on the action, the party decides to march double-time to the refinery.

It is nearly midnight before the party finally stops to set up camp in a forest clearing. Darrak and TC take the first watch while the rest retire to their bedrolls. Hours pass uneventfully, until TC spots a suspicious rustling in the trees with his machine senses. He hurls a mug at the tree to investigate, and a surprised possum drops out. Just before he can turn around to head back to the campfire, he is struck in the face by a thrown axe. Shouting the alarm, he quickly rouses the rest of the party.

Finding themselves under attack by shadowy assailants, the party stumble around in confusion, unable to discern a clear target. Craig is the first to notice one of the attackers hiding in the trees, and he and Ka’da rush over to engage. They quickly cut down the target, but are shocked when the corpse disappears into thin air and they find themselves immobilised by a barrage of poisonous shurikens. On the other side of the clearing, a well-built half-orc dressed in dark leather has grabbed TC with an exotic curved axe and is using him as shield against attacks. Meanwhile, a hidden archer continues to pepper the party with arrows. Doric recognises the work of the Slyblades, the mercenary group he mentioned before, and shouts desperately at them to stand down, but he is ignored. It takes awhile, but the party are finally able to locate their sneaky opponents and subdue them.

Just when they think they are safe, Ahava suddenly doubles over in pain. On their guard again, the party casts around, searching the trees for more enemies, when Craig falls to one knee, grasping frantically at his throat. In moments, he falls to the ground unconscious, but not before they notice something odd about his shadow. Enraged, TC thrusts at Craig’s shadow, but only manages to plant his sword into the earth. In an uncharacteristic burst of insight, Chip stamps out their campfire, reasoning that shadows can’t exist without a light. He fails to consider the light of the moon and stars, and is the next to come under attack. This time, the party can clearly see tendrils of shadow reaching up to his throat. Ka’da tries to ward away the shadows with a hastily lit torch, to no avail, while the rest rack their brains trying to figure out how to deal with the mysterious enemy. Finally, Ahava realises that they are dealing with a shadow stalker, a strange creature who attaches itself to a victim’s shadow but cannot stand physical pain. He struggles to his feet and sweeps his falchion at Chip, injuring him, but also causing the shadow creature to burst out and manifest itself. With their target finally out in the open, the party let loose a cascade of blows, quickly causing it to de-corporealise.

The party have now managed to subdue and capture all their shifty assailants. They are tied up and a watch is set over them to prevent any more nasty surprises.

The rest of the night passes uneventfully, and the party breaks camp at dawn, continuing to press on towards the refinery at Lake Yelta.

Parley means bargain

We rejoin our adventurers, who have managed to learn that the mysterious redhead is a black market artificer named Fara Teslov. It emerges that she was trying to teach Timaran the Tinker a lesson about selling her defective parts, but her plan went better than expected, causing the assembler to go haywire. She then storms out in a huff while the party learns the identity of Tim’s supplier: A Consortium dwarf named Dorin.

Deciding to drag Tim back to the guild to answer personally to Soira, the party is surprised to find Fara just outside the warehouse, in the midst of a heated discussion with none other than Dorin himself. Hauling Tim along, C1 rushes forward to try and apprehend Fara and Dorin as well. Reacting with the reflexes of a dolphin, Fara summons her Cancer, Gemini, Taurus and Sagittarius Engines to defend herself. The Cancer Engine grabs Dorin and beats a hasty retreat, with Fara following close behind. It seems Fara is after the source of the unique logic cubes. Meanwhile, the other constructs start to attack the party. Though the party manages to deal with them without too much trouble, Fara and Dorin are long gone by the time the dust settles.

Back at the guild, Soira has a few harsh words for Tim, and even more harsh words when she learns of Fara’s involvement. Turns out she and Fara used to be rivals back when they were trainee artificers, and there is no love lost between them. It also comes to light that both Fara and Soira have been expelled from the Guild of Artificers. Fara for her research and interest in creating sentient constructs such as the warforged, and Soira for just being plain crazy. Setting that aside, she reveals that her informants have discovered a secret Consortium mana oil refinery in Lake Yelta. This facility is the source of the corrupted mana oil used in the defective logic circuits, and she “requests” that the party go investigate. The Consortium seems to be reluctant to have people know about this refinery for fear of interference from the larger trade guilds. In the meantime, Soira will continue to analyse the logic circuits and try to track down Fara. Cale, the guild’s contact with the Right People, offers to find out more about the Consortium and their goals.

The next day, the party meets Tim down at the docks. Seems Soira has bullied him into helping them out on their assignment. Piloting a rented river skimmer, Tim takes them upstream towards Lake Yelta. Not too far out of town, two more river skimmers catch up to them and start to attack. At the helm of one the skimmers is a dwarf, who shouts at the party “Ye dogs! Giv mae back mae brother!” Quick-thinking Darhe’el intuits that this must be Dorin’s brother, who mistakenly believes that the party is responsible for his kidnapping. He immediately cries for parley.

Not knowing the meaning of parley, Ahava makes a mighty leap towards one of the river skimmers. Managing to clamber on, he attacks all the occupants at once, his blade flashing with incredible alacrity. Not wanting to be outdone, Chip shouts for C1 to hurl him at the other skimmer, and Craig makes an athletic leap of his own. Craig pulls one of the soldiers off the skimmer while Chip starts hewing with his battleaxe (1 d12 + 10 ). The remaining occupants of Tim’s skimmer make use of force lances to provide covering fire.

In a matter of moments, the two pursuing skimmers have caught up to Tim’s cheap rental and start to ram it, causing major damage to the engines, setting the deck on fire and knocking everyone off their feet. The dwarf heaves himself aboard and grabs Darhe’el, “Where’s Dorin, lizardface!?”. With the aid of his empathic powers, Darhe’el manages to convince the dwarf of the truth: Fara was the one who kidnapped Dorin. “What ye say! Stop the attack ye lot, these fools dinnae ’ave me brother!”

Indifferent to his orders, one of the soldiers bellows, “They’re in Consortium territory now! Trespassers must be shot until dead! And then we shoot them again because shooting stuff is fun!” With swinging swords and arcing axes, the party fight for their lives, assisted by the dwarf, who has decided to aid the ones who might have information on Dorin. When Darhe’el comes under attack from one the soldiers, Ahava is mysteriously teleported to his side to help defend him. “What’s going on here?? You did this with your crazy psionic powers didn’t you?”. Darhe’el vehemently denies responsibility, and the soldiers are dispatched before anyone can figure out the strange phenomenon.

With the danger passed, Dorin’s brother introduces himself as Doric, and agrees to help the party investigate the Consortium facility in exchange for their assistance in tracking down his brother. They commandeer the Consortium skimmers and continue upriver, while Tim mutters darkly about paying for the damage to the rental.